Day 15 February 27th 2017
As the journey progressed ever more slowly we became charade and mime experts aided by photographs that allowed communication and fun with our roomies.
One meets fellow travwllers in the carriage hallways and we met an Englishman who had travelled extensively over many years and was on his way to Lake Baikal in the hope he could convince someone to take him Ice diving!
Woken by our carriage carer (Provinitza) who appeared to say we had to get off the train – in hindsight it was that we could get off if we wished. This was probably accompanied by an explanation in Mongolian that this was a border crossing and would take hours – the critical information we missed!
The consequence of not understanding Mongolian was waking up from sleep to find ourselves stationery at the station and therefore not allowed to use the toilet. And not having the money to go at the station AND not being sure how long you had to go anyway.
Fortunately in the short run between the Mongolian and Russian borders the carriage carer took pity and unlocked the toilet.
We evntually go throygh the rugging up procedure to get off the train and discovered that somewhere in the night we had gone from many many carriages to our one carriage sitting at the station minus engine.
Then came many hours of waiting both at Mongolian and Russian border as routines were followed – both groups searched the train possibly for explosives, both groups checked passports multiple times, asked questions, and checked bags.
Finally as we pulled out Russian immigration staff lined the platform and saluted.
And on to Ulan Ude – surprisingly large sprall, I think we both expected a smallish city. Again met on the platform by our guide, this time Tuman, a local Buryat man, a busy geographical economist also doing a PhD – researching in the area of Geographic Economics specialising in the Mongolian/Russian border. A perfect person to put up with us and all our questions during our time in Buryatia.
We discovered Tuman had devised our tour 5 years ago but we were the first guests to visit in winter!
A quick night tour of the beautifully lit city by night including the largest statue of Lenin in the world – well his head actually.
Our bed for the night at Hotel Buryatia – an older hotel that looked like an iced cake from the outside. Rooms very small but comfortable.
